Gardening legend Monty Don, who once insisted lawns should be filled with long grass, has now succumbed to regular mowing.
The presenter of the BBC’s hit series Gardeners’ World has been a supporter of rewilding efforts for years – but in a dramatic u-turn he has snubbed the popular No Mow May campaign.
He previously encouraged gardeners to let their grass grow freely until later in the summer, but is now pleading with green-fingered homeowners to not forget the benefits of a neat and tidy garden.
The 69-year-old veteran broadcaster claimed that gardening is about ‘getting a space right’ as he says long grass can make a garden seem cluttered and small.
He conceded that tall grass distracts from the flowers and a tidy garden is nicer for grandchildren to play games in.
The celebrity gardener said the design is ‘not really about plants’ and it’s about getting ‘the space right’.
This is because otherwise ‘it will not look or feel good regardless of what plants you use’ and an unmown lawn can make the area feel ‘suffocating’.
In an article in BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, he wrote: ‘This spring and summer I have made a tightly mown and evenly green lawn.
‘This is slightly surprising because I have long been on record for advocating replacing lawns with long grass, ideally filled with naturalised flowers’.
He then goes onto to use his own grass in Longmeadow in Herefordshire as an example of why he supports a well manicured lawn.
Don said: ‘The simple strip of green lawn provides a breathing space between these two,’ he said.
‘It also provides a playground for my grandchildren so they can bomb up and down on their bikes or kick or hit balls without damaging the garden.’
Whilst he still says gardeners should encourage long grass, he says the whole garden needs to ‘work together.’
He added that a freshly cut lawn can be part of a ‘complicated balance’.
In 2021, Don called on gardeners – especially men – to ease off their ‘obsession’ with mowing the lawn.
He said keeping grass short tends to be a male trait, which is about ‘control’.
‘Cutting grass burns lots of fossil fuel, makes a filthy noise and is about the most injurious thing you can do to wildlife,’ Don said at the time.
‘Whereas letting grass grow, which is, after all, a pretty passive thing to do, is probably the single most effective thing you can do in any garden of any size to encourage particularly insect life, but also small mammals, invertebrates, reptiles.’
The presenter said he was not anti-grass cutting, explaining: ‘I like walking on a lawn with bare feet as much as the next person.’
It comes as Brits are being told to lock up their lawnmowers and let wildlife take over their gardens for No Mow May, in a craze that threatens to pit neighbours against one another.
The one-month celebration of unkept gardens and overgrown parks was launched back in 2019 by nature charity Plantlife.
Designed to shine a spotlight on biodiversity, some 40 locals councils have signed up to this year’s effort, vowing to let their verges and parks to grow.
But previous instalments have led to curtain-twitching busy-bodies clashing with their neighbours for not trimming their gardens – with eco-warriors shaming those who continue to cut their grass.
In June, Springwatch presenter Michaela Strachan said people should ‘be lazy’ and not mow their lawns, forgetting the obsession with ‘bowling green’ gardens.
Her plea came just days after the end of the ‘no-mow May’ craze in which people deliberately keep their gardens scruffy in order to benefit wildlife and wildflowers.
BBC presenter Strachan said it was the best move to help wildlife in gardens and that people should forget the ‘obsession’ with having a neat lawn.
She said: ‘The best thing you can do is not mow your lawn.
‘We’ve gone through the stage of people being obsessed with having this sort of bowling green lawn.
‘And it’s no good for the insects, no good for pollinators.
‘If you think of all the amazing flowers that can be part of the lawn, we have to learn to embrace them.
‘We’ve lost so many of our insects – butterfly numbers are down, insects’ general numbers are down.’
Strachan, 58, said that the country has lost lots of natural meadows and if anyone with a garden tried to make a meadow, it would make a huge difference to the biosphere and help pollinators.